Let's Run It Back

Hello from Atlanta, and welcome to Backpackin'! If you want to follow this weird trip around the world, add your email below: 

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Buenos días, amigos. I'm headed to Rome with my grandma and 12-year-old cousin next week, which means it's time to fire up my favorite internet travel blog. The Raines family will be hopping all over Italy and Spain for a couple of weeks before heading back to the states, but "I" will probably stick around for another month or so afterwards. Got a lot of stuff to see and do, and not a lot of time to do it.

The opportunity cost of everything, or something like that.

Plus I hear Greece is beautiful this time of year.

I have embraced the fact that my perpetual sense of FOMO will lead me to hop around different countries on-and-off until I die, so I think I'm going to keep this travel journal going indefinitely. It'll be interesting looking back over some of these entries in a decade or two.

A few updates:

My Spanish is mucho mejor.

I've been aggressively studying Spanish and conversing for 1-2 hours per day with locals via video chat, and I'm feeling fuerte. Am I fluent? Absolutely not. But I know enough to be dangerous. And that's all you need. Want to read up on how I've improved my language skills? Check this article I published yesterday.

I'm moving to New York in the fall.

This will be my last trip to Europe before relocating to the Big Apple. Very excited to live in a broom closet in Manhattan.

Everyone I know is getting engaged.

I do love being 25 years old.

Tanner, the OG travel partner, drove from DC to Atlanta last Saturday.

 Long story short, his friend Jake graduated from Marines school at Quantico and got stationed in Florida. After attending Jake's graduation, Tanner just rode down with him, and they spent the weekend in Atlanta. @ Tanner's grandma, this one's for you. Your grandson looks much cleaner cut than he did when I first met him.

Cleaner cut is an understatement.

Ryanair, the most well-known of the European budget airlines, has the greatest corporate Twitter account on Earth.

Just dunking on everyone and taking no prisoners. Very excited to take some more $13 flights around Europe now!

Canadian Mike, a recurring guest of the blog, will be in Barcelona for two months.

This obviously means that I will have to spend some time in Barcelona as well!

As always, if you're going to be in Europe over the next couple of months, hit me up. Always down to mix it up with some random internet strangers in foreign lands!

If you're just reading along, I'm happy you're here. I promise to keep you entertained.

Catch you guys later.

- Jack

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